The Paulding County Economic Development hosted their annual Business & Industry Appreciation Banquet meeting Tuesday, November 12 at Grant’s catering celebrating the business growth in the county over the past year.
PCED Director, Jerry Zielke opened the event to approximately 200 people that came out on the cold blustery mid-autumn night. Zielke mentioned the weather being strange this year, but the crops still turned out well that were planted.
The sponsors for this year’s event include: AgCredit, Baughman Tile LLC, CMS Enterprises, Cooper Farms, Haviland Drainage Products, Kauser Trucking and Excavating, Paragon Tempered Glass, Paulding County Area Foundation, Paulding Putnam Electric Coop, State Bank and Trust.
Jim States thanked the musicians for their services and then proceeded to pray for the meal.
Music entertainment during the dinner was provided by Carman Martin and Elsie Manz of Stringato Quartet.
New business and expansions this year included:
Antwerp Storage Solution
Bittersweet Inn-Paulding
Dollar Tree – Paulding
Gordon Water Treatment – Antwerp
Marlin & Associates – Paulding
Paulding Automotive Service Center
Sno Cone Restaurant – Charloe
Stylish Pets Dog Grooming Salon – Paulding
Uncle Fudd’s Restaurant – Grover Hill
Lafarge Holcium
Insource Technologies-Paulding
Haviland Plastics
PCED President, Larry Manz, announced the small and large businesses and welcomed Jerry Zielke to introduce the special guests which included Laurie Lucas of Habitat for Humanity, Gary Mabis from the Paulding County Park District Board, Dave Burtch for the Paulding County Vision Board, Shawn Matako of CoRP (Community Revitalizing Paulding), Mike Kauser from the Paulding County Land Bank, and finally, Dave Burtch of Paulding CIC (Community Improvement Corp).
Vicki Steele was honored for her work and dedication to the Economic Development of Paulding County as she is moving to another career.
Larry Manz then announced the big news of the night that Tim Copsey will be taking over as PCED director for Jerry Zielke, as Jerry is semi-retiring. Jerry plans to stay on until Tim takes over permanently in January 2020.
When Jerry started with PCED there were two projects in the works with Paulding County Economic Development and now there are over 30 going on to bring development in the county. Copsey stated that he intends to continue and expand the hard work that Jerry has already established to bring more growth to the area. Paulding County currently has the least unemployment of any county in the area.
Many businesses were recognized and spoke about their expansions and beginnings. Notable was Tony Manz of InSource Technology and Greg Schafer of Haviland Plastics with their greatly increased capacity.
